Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/92

68 exclamation would have had a strange sound. Ever since modern systems of government have been thought of, the truest and most enlightened friends of liberty and progress have believed that the meeting of representatives of the people as law-makers, freely to exchange their opinions and deliberate upon the public affairs, was the institutional embodiment of the people's rights and the main safeguard of their interests, and that not only the power to resolve, but the freedom, aye, the duty, to speak and deliberate,—not only to act, but to give reasons for so acting,—was one of the essential virtues of the system. And now we hear the Speaker of our National House of Representatives triumphantly exclaim that his House is a deliberative body no longer.

It was, however, not his own triumph alone. It was that of the interest served by his party. Do you not remember, when the tariff bill was before Congress, how the press organs of protection shouted in one chorus: “Let discussion be stopped at once! Why this unnecessary talk? Action we want, and silence!” That was the voice of the real master. It demanded even that in the Senate, where, fortunately for the country, so far discussion has been free and unrestrained, rules should be adopted to shackle it. And why this? One protectionist journal spoke out frankly: “It is not the bill that will hurt us so much as the discussion.” Therefore, no more deliberation; silent action is demanded,—demanded with characteristic arrogance. While in the House of Representatives debate has long ceased to be as free as it originally was, and the most important part of the business is done in the secrecy of the committee room. Speaker Reed did all in his power to render the secret work of the committee room still more decisive by making the public deliberations of the House still more insignificant. “The House no longer a deliberative body!” Do you know